Cyber risks for Middle Eastern organisations highlighted at Black Hat MEA by Mimecast

Mimecast, an email and collaboration security company, has identified key cyber risks for Middle Eastern organizations ahead of Black Hat Middle East & Africa, which will be held from November 15 to 17 at the Riyadh Front Exhibition Centre.

The rapid adoption of digital communication channels and hybrid work models has increased the attack surface for organizations, posing new security risks to people and data.

Organizations in Saudi Arabia, according to Werno Gevers, cybersecurity expert at Mimecast, should ensure they have tools and processes in place to protect against email-related phishing and ransomware attacks in particular.  “Phishing attacks are likely to continuously evolve as the low cost and high return on investment creates an attractive proposition for threat actors. An emerging threat in this respect is new starter phishing, where new starts announce their new jobs on LinkedIn and then receive fake welcome emails from supposed senior executives, or get directed to a false company onboarding portal. Threat actors then use this for credential harvesting or account takeover.”

According to Mimecast’s State of Email Security 2022 report, 90% of Saudi companies have been the target of an email-related phishing attempt. Furthermore, 60% of businesses were hit by a ransomware attack, though Saudi Arabia leads the way with only five days of downtime on average, compared to a global average of more than seven days.

“Our latest State of Ransomware Readiness report found that 36% of global organisations have experienced a loss in revenue due to a ransomware attack in the last twelve months,” says Gevers. “Companies must implement proactive measures such as the use of artificial intelligence and integrating security tools to reduce their vulnerability and limit the frequency of successful ransomware attacks.”

Organizations in the region are advised to implement tools and policies to secure their workplace environment, wherever work may occur, to safeguard data and ensure employees can work safely.

Mimecast unveiled the X1 Platform in August, the foundation of the Mimecast Product Suite, which is designed to drive industry-leading detection capabilities, deliver reliability, resilience, and scale, and transform data into insights that transform email and collaboration security into the eyes and ears of organizations around the world.

“In light of the sheer breadth and scale of the cyber threats facing organisations, integrated cyber resilience solutions can protect organisations at speed and scale,” says Gevers. “In today’s fast-paced business environment, organisations need the ability to reduce risk, accelerate performance and drive collaboration. This is only possible if organisations can mitigate threats across their email, web and cloud environments, gain real-time zero-trust data protection capabilities, access improved threat intelligence and gain full control and visibility over the threats they face.”

Mimecast will be at Black Hat MEA at Booth # H3.D01